Free Loaders: Escape The Invaded City Of Santa Luz

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Free Loaders on a Tuesday? That’s right. We don’t follow your rigid social structure here at RPS, man. We’re rule-breakers, rebels, mavericks. We follow the beat of our own cholesterol-clogged hearts. If we want to give you a list of the best free games of the past week on a Tuesday instead of a Saturday, then gorb dormit that’s what we’ll do. You’re not the boss of us.

Short stealth adventure with a Pixaresque art style. Lily and her father must escape the city of Santa Luz after it is invaded by an army of hulking, bad-looking dudes. Sneak through the streets, bookshops and apartment blocks and make decisions you think will best keep Lily safe. If you find a dog trapped in a car with a tank about to blast it away, do you help the dog at your daughter’s request or do you run on, deciding it’s too dangerous?

I like how the beginning of the game teaches you its stealthiness by having you play briefly as Lily, playing hide and seek with her dad. Along the way the story is recorded and related back by a much older Lily using a scrapbook that collects the memories as they happen. Needless to say, the animation and artwork on this is just top notch for a freebie. The story is simple but you can immediately relate to the endangered pair – it also has some tough feels in there. There was one particular decision I made which was not at all Disney. But nonetheless added a lot of character to the whole thing. A polished game that reminds me a little of Beyond Good and Evil and leaves me wanting more.

Gorgeous stroll through an overgrown ecclesiastical ruin. Emerge from the tall wheat fields into an archaeological site where some sort of ancient cathedral lies in ruins atop a distant hillside. All around are smaller stone ruins, still impressive in their own right. There is lots of pretty detail in this quiet stroll of a game. Is it a walking simulator? Probably. Fair warning: this one comes with the French AZERTY control scheme (‘Z’ to go forward), which will feel very wacky to us QWERTYs.

Still, this shouldn’t stop you from having a jaunt and admiring the tranquil atmosphere. Trees, both green and autumnal, stand watch. Some small stones, possibly graves, form a circle in the grass. An isolated section of wall peeps out from among the cereal crops. In the corners of some of the ruins, brown weeds grow where no other plant could. Walking through the cathedral’s skeletal remains, the sounds of birds chirping disappears and is replaced by the sound of a gentle wind tunnel. Mmmmm. Art.

Retro space robber which is difficult difficult lemon difficult. But if you are Bad At Games® then you can play on the easy mode. Float over a planet and use your tractor beam to steal the energy core that is grasped firmly within the fist of some ancient structure. But be careful, there’s narrow caverns to navigate and they are filled with turrets. Shoot these to blow them away or disable them by firing at their power generator. But shoot the generator too much and the whole planet will explode. Play in the classic difficulty setting to replicate a lunar lander clone with added guns and a fiddly objective. Die lots and then put your name into the empty offline hi-score table, as if you have achieved something. That is how videogames are meant to be played.

Cursed game. Do not approach. Cursed game. Warning. Leave the area immediately. If game comes into contact with eyes, rinse with warm water and seek medical help at once. Antidote as yet unknown. Solution as yet unknown. Stay away from The Apple Escape. This has been a public service announcement from Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

Post apocalyptic guns ‘n’ conversation, without the guns. You are one of a trio of survivors following the collapse of civilisation. Who knows how, and who cares. The only thing that matters is making sure you have enough tinned peaches and that your mates Jakub and Ana don’t go for each other’s throats in the night because of some sly remark. Make decisions about who to support or believe in different arguments and look on with a psychopath’s curiousity as the morale dips or bolsters as a result of your whimsical choices. You are horrible. Your decisions will result in different endings. I got the good end. Everyone alive and still together. But you’re bad at reading people and you’re a terrible leader. Everyone knows that. I bet you’ll get your pals killed over some beans. Then again, maybe that’s what you want. You monster.

9 Comments

Seems super weird that the Colors of Santa Luz game requires a controller when it looks like all it needs is arrow keys and a few buttons. Is this some sort of limitation of Unity that boxes you into using a controller if you don’t start out with thinking of the keyboard as an option? (Unity also seems to make it really hard for indie developers to offer the option of inverting mouselook.)